Relating

So a friend of mine got me started on The Circle Trilogy by Ted Dekker a few weeks ago... LOVE it!  The first couple chapters I thought were really weird and I wasn't sure that I was going to get into these books, but I recommend them to anyone who likes a good (somewhat crazy) story.

Thomas Hunter, the main character, falls asleep in the present day world and wakes up in another reality.  A world where the people are completely focused on the Great Romance and their creator - Elyon.  It's a little ... sci-fi ish... but the metaphors and allegory come clear as you work through the books.

Such vivid emotions and descriptions of love, something easily relateable in a story.  Love, loss, war, good, evil these are concepts that are at the core of most of our stories from the evening sitcom line-ups to classics from Shakespeare, Jane Austin, or even Stephen King.  These are the basic concepts we understand our human lives in.

But do we allow such emotion in our religions?  Do I allow myself to have such a deep relationship with my creator?  Well... it's much more difficult.

Yet this book seems to carefully prod the reader - don't you want to have something this meaningful?  It's easy to watch a movie or a TV series and find a situation you relate to, or wish you related to.  Yet, religion can so easily fall away from something that centers around those concepts of love, good, and evil.  It's easy to talk about, academically speaking, but do we really FEEL love in our relationship to God?  Do I?

Sometimes, yes.  Sometimes, no.  So what else do I focus on and is that really worthy of my time and energy?
Great books, great concepts, great way to approach the story of the gospel in a new way.  Thanks Ted Dekker. 

God Bless you and yours,
Your sister in Christ~Erin